Dr. Gaies’ health services research focuses on quality metrics and practice pattern variation in pediatric cardiac intensive care units, as well as system factors and organizational attributes that may be related to clinical outcomes in these units. He is also the executive director of the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4), an international quality improvement collaborative of children’s hospitals that is examining the underlying drivers of hospital performance, specifically the key characteristics and practices of cardiac ICUs at high-performing hospitals. PC4 aims to define evidence-based best practices, and to disseminate these findings widely throughout the international community of pediatric cardiac critical care and cardiac surgery.